Since only the sun and moon made light, I have known you. I watched you from the once vast, impenetrable forest. I was witness as you discovered fire and strange tools. From ridges I watched you hunt, and envied your kills. I have eaten your scraps, you have eaten mine. I have heard your songs and watched your dancing shadows around bright fires. In a time so distant that I can barely remember, some of us joined you to sit near those fires. We became part of your packs, joined in your hunts, protected your pups, helped you, feared you, loved you. We have existed together a long time. We were much alike. It is why the tame ones adopted you. Some of you, I know, respected me, the wild one. I am a good hunter. I respected you, too. You were a good hunter. I would see you hunt in a pack with the tame ones and catch meat. Then there was plenty. Then there were few of you. Then the woods were big. We howled to the tame ones in the night. Some came back to hunt with us. Some we ate, for they became very strange. It was this way for a long long time. It was a good way. Sometimes I would steal from you, as you did from me. Do you remember when you were starving and the snow was deep and you ate the meat we killed? It was a game. It was a dept. Some might call it a promise. Like many of the tame ones, most of you became very strange. Now I do not recognize some of the tame ones. Now I do not recognize some of you. We were once so much alike. You made the meat tame, too. When I began to hunt your tame meat ( they are foolish creatures and do not honor death, but the wild meat was gone ) you hunted me. I do not understand. When your packs grew larger and fought among themselves, I saw. I watched your great battles. I feasted on those you left behind. Then you hunted me more. I do not understand. They were meat, you killed them. The wild ones are now very few. You made the woods small. You have killed many of us. But I still hunt, and feed our hidden pups. I always will. I wonder if the tame ones who live with you made a good choice. They have lost the spirit to live in the wild. They are many, but they are strange. We are few. I still watch you, too, so that I can avoid you. I don't think I know you any longer.